Grand Central Holiday Train Display

The Transit Museum Annex in Grand Central did a great job with it's annual holiday train display this year.

They added a few interactive buttons - you pushed a button and made something move. For example one of the buttons was connected to a toy oil rig and when you pushed the button the rig started "pumping for oil".



The trains start circling the big Christmas tree and then move a miniature version of New York City.

They end up going around the North Pole - passing by Santa Claus of course.

Happy Hanukkah

One of the many great things about New York is the celebration of so many cultures and religions. Hanukkah is celebrated as much as Christmas and you see menorahs in buildings and other places around the city. On Park Ave they have a huge menorah set up and every night of Hanukkah a Rabbi rides up a cherry picker to 'light' up the candle.

This menorah is one of my favorites, I've seen in before but I've never had the right timing to get a photo.

It is the mobile menorah! It is on a trailer hitched to the back of the motor home with the big banner featuring a Rabbi. There is also a broadcast speaker and someone shouts out religious greetings as the menorah drives the streets of New York.

An On-going Series: Unfortunately Named Nail Salons

Another nail salon with an unfortunate name - not as good as DMV nails, but it made me laugh.

Nails n Now...really? What is the 'Now' that is being offered. It just doesn't make any sense.

The Gangs of the Upper East Side

Looks like the kids on the Upper East Side decided to do some tagging in the subway station...

Yes, pip pip cheerio indeed!

Michael noticed the sign yesterday morning, I had to go and get a picture because this is funny on so many levels. And to keep giving proper credit, the one liner is his too.

It's Just What I Wanted!

I just got a packaged delivered - from wine.com, so I knew it had to be good.

It is a lovely bottle of sparkling wine and who gave it to me? Work!

This really is the best job ever.

Bloomingdale's Holiday Windows 2009

Continuing with the Holiday Window series:


The holiday windows at Bloomingdale's were unveiled earlier this month. I went down to see Harry Connick Jr. perform for the big debut, but I arrived too late. I really need to do some research on the Bloomingdale's windows. They just seem to be a hodge podge of flashy displays with no real theme. They repeatedly mention gifts and gift giving; my guess a not so subtle way to get people to loosen the purse strings this holiday season.

The first window talks all about color and it is filled with glitter teddy bears (including a row of dancing bears in colors of the rainbow - Grateful Dead anyone). The main parts of the window are a glittered up bear on a motorcycle and two bears reading a story to a child.





After the bears there is a double window display that featured Dynamic Duos - it is pairs of famous characters waiting in line to see Santa Claus.

The pairs include Batman and Robin, Anthony and Cleopatra, salt and pepper, annnnnnnddddd (wait for it)...........







The President and Mrs. Obama!




The next window is interactive - you can't tell from my picture but if you stand in the right spot (it's marked on the sidewalk) in front of the window you are displayed inside the big smiling mouth. Everyone likes being on TV, so this is a crowd favorite.




After the interactive display we move on to the 'give women shoes' window. It is a big shoe filled with shoes on a conveyor belt with a shoe chandelier and shoes decorating the Christmas tree. I hope that little boy is giving his mom a pair of shoes - this isn't a woman who wants chocolate or a scarf for Christmas!

Moving down the line we get to a window I think is pretty cute. It shows the Dad of the family looking at himself in the mirror and seeing Santa in the reflection. The window talks about the Secret Santa in all of us (or something like that - you get the gist).

The final special holiday window has just a little touch of crazy. It's a huge snowman Santa that kind of swings around. He has a big star in his hand, maybe for the top of the tree?

The best part is, he wasn't holding a star in his hand when the windows were unveiled. He was holding a child! I remember thinking it looked like he was going to eat the kid. It was like King Kong Snow Santa was out to get all of the naughty boys and girls. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought this wasn't quite right because the display has been changed.

Please note, the photo above, with the child in Santa's hand, is credited to a "PMc". I didn't get a shot opening night and when I went back to take a picture the display had been changed. I grabbed this photo from another blog.

Where is the Bloomie's of last year - with nostalgic scenes and music from Tony Bennett?

Anthropologie Holiday Windows 2009

Well with HGTV not doing their holiday window special I am going to step up and do my part - I'll even give you windows and decorations they never covered!

Some of my favorite windows are the displays at the HUGE Anthropologie store at Rockefeller Center. They make their displays with unusual materials and they usually find a way to sneak in a hidden message.

In this window they use fabric, bunting, and bubble wrap to create 'snow' drifts.

This is a close up of how the materials are layered.

In this window the letters 'S' 'N' 'O' and 'W' are falling from the ceiling (get it, falling snow). My favorite part was the snowball that was really a little mouse igloo.

A close up of the mouse house:

All of the white squares and rectangles are pieces of fabric.

The trees are made from loops of long ribbons.

And finally these huge snowballs - some had tags with names on them. I'm not sure if that meant it was supposed to be a gift or if that is the intended snowball target??